Tuesday, October 25, 2011

Activities for Books Without Words

There is more to literacy than reading words on a page, especially when it comes to a children's book. In these books the pictures are as important as the words. The pictures allow the children to not only see the words but visualize the images and put meaning to those images. Children first start comprehending literature before they can read.
With this in mind I have a couple of activities that teachers and even guardians can do with wordless books.

Kaleidoscope Journey- Meanings and feelings arise from certain colors and their placements. Have the children draw a character then give them papers with a variety of colors on them. Have them place their character on a page and then have them state what is going on, how the background makes the character feel, and how does the background make the children feel.

Write for a Picture- In this activity have the children get a wordless book, such as Do You Want to be My Friend? by Eric Carle. Then have them write a dialogue for each page. Be sure to have them include the names of the characters, and where the events are happening.

A Picture is Worth a Lot of Words- Write different words such as happy, hurt, skipping, ect... and put them in a bag. What ever word they pick out have them develop at least three pictures that have to deal with the word they chosen.

Create a Picture Book

2 comments:

  1. I loved that you brought up the fact that meanings and feelings arise from certain colors and their placements. The illustrations of a book dramatically influence one's grasp of a reading. This brings up the interesting topic of books on tape...

    ReplyDelete
  2. Wordless books are great fun! It may seem scary for some adults because there are no words or storyline, but these books are filled to the brim with beautiful illustrations made to engage the imagination! Letting the child engage with the pictures, make personal connections and meaning and share that with others in story format is perhaps even better than a simple real aloud by an adult!

    ReplyDelete